Cape Lisburne AFS was a continental defence radar station constructed to provide the United States Air Force early warning of an attack by the Soviet Union on Alaska.

It was one of the ten original radar surveillance sites constructed during the early 1950s, to establish a permanent air defense system in Alaska.

The first western explorer to arrive at Cape Lisburne was Captain James Cook in his search for a Northwest Passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean.

A small Eskimo settlement, Wevok, existed for a short period of time in an area on the western side of what would become the Air Force Station.

In the late 1940s with the outbreak of the Cold War, the United States Air Force decided to expand the aircraft control and warning system in the Alaska Territory.

The first Airmen to arrive at the station was Detachment F-7, 142d Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron (AC&W Sq) on 21 June 1951, during the site construction period.

A 4,800' airstrip was constructed in 1951 adjacent to the ground support station, with a gravel runway capable of medium transport (C-118, C-130) 68°52′30″N 166°06′36″W / 68.87500°N 166.11000°W / 68.87500; -166.11000 (Cape Lisburne LRRS Airport) landings and takeoffs.

The station (bottom camp) consisted of a power/heating plant, water and fuel storage tanks, gymnasium and other support office buildings.

Two other buildings contained living quarters, work areas, and recreational facilities plus opportunities for such sports as skiing, skating, horseshoes, and basketball.

Capable of firing at a rate of 450 to 575 rounds per minute per gun, this weapon was particularly lethal when applied to ground targets in the field.

It was inactivated in 1979, and replaced by an Alascom owned and operated satellite earth terminal as part of an Air Force plan to divest itself of the obsolete White Alice Communications System and transfer the responsibility to a commercial firm.

In 1983, Cape Lisburne AFS received a new AN/FPS-117 minimally attended radar under Alaskan Air Command's SEEK IGLOO program .

It was designed to transmit aircraft tracking data via satellite to the Alaskan NORAD Regional Operations Control Center (ROCC) at Elmendorf AFB.

No longer needed, the 711th AC&W Sq was inactivated on 1 November 1983 and the station redesignated as a Long Range Radar (LRR) Site.

In 1998 PACAF initiated "Operation Clean Sweep", in which abandoned Cold War stations in Alaska were remediated and the land restored to its previous state.

The LIZ sector was the most westernmost point of the network, composed of a series of surveillance radar stations along the northwest Alaska Coast to Icy Cape (LIZ-B), about 140 miles to the northeast.